A DEADFALL FOR BEAR

Soon we came to one of the best deadfalls I had ever seen. It was set
for bear, and was of the "log-house" kind, with walls nearly six feet
high, and a base that was eight feet long by five feet wide in front,
while only two feet in width in the rear. It was built in conjunction
with two standing trees that formed the two corner posts retaining the
huge drop-log. The front of the big trap was left quite open, save for
the drop-log that crossed it obliquely. While the thin end of the log
was staked to the ground, the thick end, loaded with a platform,
weighted with stones, projected beyond the far side of the trap at a
height of about five feet from the ground. It was ready to fall and
crush any unlucky creature that might venture in and touch the
bait-trigger. Whatever the drop-log might fall upon, it would hold as
though in a vise, and if the bear were not already dead when the hunter
should arrive, he would take care to shoot the animal in the head
before removing the drop-log.

Snares are also set for bears, and the best of them are made of twenty
strands of _babiche_ twisted into the form of a rope. The loop is set
about eighteen inches in diameter, and is attached to either a
spring-pole or a tossing-pole--or, more correctly speaking, a tree
sufficiently large to raise and support the weight of the bear.
Sometimes a guiding-pole is used in connection with a snare. One end
is planted in the ground in the centre of the path and the other,
slanting up toward the snare, is used as a guide toward the loop, since
a bear walking forward would straddle the pole. In a further effort to
getting the animal's head in the right place, the hunter smears the